1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for generating ozone and is more particularly concerned with an ozone generator for supplying ozone to water for purifying the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that, by passing oxygen through an electrical discharge, sufficient energy will be imparted to the oxygen to convert the oxygen molecules (O.sub.2) into ozone molecules (O.sub.3). Devices known as ozonizers have been used in the laboratory to generate ozone. Such ozonizers usually consist of a single unit of concentric metal foil electrodes across which an electrostatic charge is imposed. This creates what is known as a silent electric discharge. Such devices are generally inefficient and produce only a dilute mixture of oxygen and ozone from an input of essentially oxygen. Furthermore, the metal foil of the electrodes is easily damaged and may deteriorate with prolonged use. In Europe, ozone has been used in water systems for the purpose of purifying drinking water. Such use, however, has not had wide acceptance in the United States.
For maintaining a low bacteria count, chlorine has been used in swimming pool water; however, substantially no ozone is used for that purpose. Chlorine is an irritating substance which in minute quantities is not toxic; however, I have found that if some or all of the chlorine in swimming pools were replaced with ozone, this would improve the purity of the water.
Accordingly, I have devised a simple and inexpensive ozone generator which progressively reacts the oxygen of the ambient air to produce ozone, the generator having a long useful life for automatically injecting ozone into water or air to purify the same.